


Alana Beck is Trying to Ruin my Life

by HesitantlyHipsterAlien



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Acorn - Freeform, Alana thinks Jared's an asshole, Connor Lives AU, Connor is good at dealing with hot messes, Evan knows why Jared's the way he is, Happy, He was a hot mess himself so..., Jared barely gets character depth in this fandom and it makes me sad, Just Connor and Jared because there are literally like 3 fics for them, M/M, Not Sincerely Three (Sorry), Slow Build, Some angst but its mostly Jared being lonely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-11-19 09:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11310576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HesitantlyHipsterAlien/pseuds/HesitantlyHipsterAlien
Summary: Alana Beck steals Jared Kleinman's only friend, Evan Hansen, because she thinks Jared needs to learn not to be mean. This leaves Jared more of a mess than was expected. Just when things are looking bleak, Connor Murphy walks in to Jared's life.Or...Jared tries to survive a month without Evan, fails miserably after the first week, and is then rescued by Connor.





	1. One Month

4:47 a.m. Normal people would be asleep at this hour. Then again, Jared's parents have never been "normal". 

Its mornings like this that Jared Kleinman is glad he sleeps upstairs. At least his parents talking is mostly muffled. They're arguing about the family cars for whatever obnoxious reason. Jared just wishes his parents could argue a little quieter so he could have slept through them.

This wish is proved pointless moments later when his mom walks in to his room (without knocking) and gently shakes him. Grumbling, he rolls to face her, his chocolate locks sticking out in every direction as he stares up at his mother. Voice still husky with sleep, Jared speaks. "...Morning ma...am I in trouble?"

"No, baby, of course not. I'm sorry, I know its early. I just got a call from your Aunt Dee, dad is sick again and she and mom need my help taking care of him, so I need to go up and stay at their place for a week or so," His mother looks anxious, almost on the verge of tears. "But your dad has a business conference in Tulsa he has to go to, so I need to take your car."

Jared sighs. As difficult as not having his car will be, he can tell his mom has been arguing against taking it probably all morning and she doesn't look like she has the energy to argue with him too. And besides, she's paid for most of his gas in the last month anyway. So he can't say no, there's just no justified way.

"Alright," He sits up, grabbing his glasses from the bedside table. "Keys are hanging on the wall by the light switch. You need any help getting your bags in the car?"

"You don't have to get up if you don't want to..."

"Its fine, ma," Jared says, raking a hand through his hair. "I need to shower before school anyway. Is dad here?"

"Nope, he already left."

Jared nods, glad for that answer. His dad can be a real dick first thing in the morning and frankly, Jared just doesn't have the emotional energy for it today. Getting up, he grabs a flannel off the chair, slipping his black converse on. His mother gets up, grabbing his keys from where they hang by the wall.

He follows her outside and puts her two suitcases in the car, giving her a kiss on the cheek before she backs out of the driveway and leaves him home alone. Its happened before, but in the past its only been a couple of days, and from what it sounded like in the argument that woke him, both his parents would be gone for a couple weeks at least. Sighing to the empty driveway, Jared trudged back inside to shower. He'd have to talk to Evan and see if he could crash at his place for a couple days. He hated being home alone.

<...>

"Morning Acorn..." Jared says as he perches in the seat next to his best friend in the caf. Evan glances up, looking thoroughly confused at his new nickname.

"Acorn?"

"You said you fell out of a tree," Jared replies, motioning to the cast on Evan's arm. "Acorns fall out of trees. Therefore, you are an acorn."

Evan seems to think on this for a moment before nodding. "Well, its better than Evan-Asshole, so there's that..."

Jared shrugs in response, resting his chin on his arms. Its been ten minutes since he got off the bus and he's already exhausted. Though his impromptu early morning is probably to blame for that. After a minute, Evan nudges him.

"You should probably get in line for breakfast, they'll only have fruit left soon."

"You should probably not tell me how to live my life, Acorn," Jared says with a teasing grin.

"Acorn?" Alana. Oh joy.

Evan nods to the girl as she sits down across from them, carefully reorganizing her tray of food. "Yeah, acorns fall out of trees, and I fell out of a tree, so, therefore, I'm an acorn and that's what Jared calls me."

Alana frowns. "Jared, that's mean."

Jared glances to her, offering a confused scowl. "Oh? Why would you say that?"

"Because it is!" Alana states, glowering at Jared. "Your best friend fell out of a tree and had a very traumatic experience and all you can do is laugh about it and call him names?"

"Jared's always like that," Evan says in a semi-defensive tone. "Its not a big deal, Alana."

"Evan's right."

"Shut up, Jared," Alana snaps. Then, she gently sets a hand on Evan's good one. "Evan, that's not how real friends should treat you and I can prove it."

"How?" Both boys ask.

"Simple: Evan, I want you to avoid Jared for one whole month. You can hang out with me and my circle, and we'll show you how real friends are supposed to treat you. After that month, you can decide whether you want to go back to someone who treats you the way Jared does."

"Alana, this is ridiculous-" Jared starts, but she cuts him off.

"I think you need this lesson, Kleinman," Alana says coolly. "I'm sure your 'friends from camp' will keep you company." Turning to Evan, Alana says: "Well...what do you say?"

Evan looks to Jared. Jared stares back. In that look they both agree that there is no changing Alana's mind. And as long as they can still text every night, one month should be that bad. Nodding and squeezing Jared's knee under the table as a form of gentle reassurance, Evan looks to Alana and nods. "Fine, but its a waste of time."

Alana simply nods as the bell rings for the start of class. "Good, we start now. Come on, Evan, we don't want to be late for math."

With that, she stands, leading Evan off. Jared sits at the table alone for a moment as everything processes. One month. He has to go one month without hanging out with Evan. Evan who he always sits with at lunch. Evan who he was going to try and spend a few nights with so he wasn't home alone. Evan, his best- shit, his only- friend.

This was going to suck.


	2. The First Three Days

Evan tries to soften the blow.

The first night, he texts Jared non-stop, asking for opinions on Alana's friends, making sure Jared is okay, discussing ideas on how to get out of Alana's plan early. And to his credit, Jared does defend Alana somewhat. He explains that she must mean well and she wouldn't be doing this to hurt them.

Or, at least, she wouldn't be doing this to hurt Evan.

The second day, Jared eats lunch in the band room, having learned the first day that eating lunch in the caf meant he ate alone, and that in and of itself was a little bit mortifying. That and seeing the looks Alana kept giving him because of whatever she and Evan were talking about makes him certain that he will spend the rest of this month eating anywhere but in the caf. Or just not eating until he gets home, if it comes to that.

The second night, Evan only texts him once, offering the explanation that Alana and her friends are taking him out to a movie. He promises to text Jared later that night, but then he doesn't.

That stings more than Jared cares to admit.

Its now Saturday, day three out of thirty. Its ten pm when Jared accepts that Evan just isn't going to text him and decides to go on a walk- as both of his family's cars are gone- to try and clear his head. 

As he walks the dimly lit sidewalk, hands shoved in the pockets of an old maroon hoodie he found buried in his closet, Jared's thoughts wander. Was Evan bothered by Jared's behavior throughout their friendship? Was he really only smiling playfully at Jared's insults because he thought it was the polite thing to do? Was he actually hurt by the insults Jared had meant in humor? Did Jared take the "family friends" joke too far?

Continuing this train of thought, a spiral of what-ifs come rushing in.

What if Evan actually hated him? What if he's just been waiting for an escape? What if he never talks to Jared again? What if he turns the whole school against Jared? What if he tells them all what an awful person Jared is? 

What if he spills the secret of why Jared acts the way he does?

'No,' Jared mentally scolds himself, shaking his head as he steps through the doors of the convenience store he and Evan have walked to hundreds of times before while looking for snack food to fuel their late night gaming. 'Evan wouldn't do that. He promised he'd keep that a secret. Evan doesn't break promises.'

Trailing to the back of the 7/11, Jared realizes he's both soaked and freezing. He was so lost in thought that he didn't process the fact it started pouring on his walk over here. Wiping his glasses with one of the napkins from the dispenser, he sighs shakily. Initially, he'd planned on getting a slushie- blue raspberry had been Evan's preference for years, Jared himself was more partial to watermelon- but he now decided hot chocolate sounded like a better idea.

Replacing his glasses, he grabbed a medium cup, taking it over to the machine. As he watched the stream of hot liquid drizzle down, his mind began to wander again. How dependent was he on Evan, really? Besides always sitting together at lunch. And hanging out every weekend. And talking every night. And-

Suddenly, there is pain. 

Jared gives a sharp cry as he yanks his now-burned hand back, the cup toppling over as it continues to overflow with hot chocolate. The liquid splatters out into the aisle in front of Jared, a muddy chocolate pool forming on the floor. Muttering a string of curses under his breath, Jared grabs a stack of napkins, frantically trying to mop up the mess and burning himself a couple more times in the process. Tears well in his eyes as he panics internally, feeling like he's being stared at from every direction.

And then there's an arm around his trembling shoulders as someone is helping him up and leading him out of the store.

<...>

Sitting at Connor Murphy's kitchen table is weird. Or maybe that's just the atmosphere of the whole night. 

The hot chocolate Connor bought him sits somewhere towards the center of the table, forgotten by Jared when Connor brought out the first aid kit. Jared watches numbly as Connor carefully wraps an ACE bandage around his hand to keep the burn ointment in place. This side of Connor- the one that patiently took Jared back out to his car and let him sob into his chest, the one that replaced the hot chocolate that had exploded all over the bespectacled boy, and the one who now sat carefully taking care of his injured hand- was someone so unfamiliar he was almost alien.

This was not the Connor Murphy anyone at school knew.

"They've been supposed to get that fucking machine fixed for two months," Connor explains, carefully putting the clasp over the end of the bandage. "Zoey was the last person it did that too, though she hadn't been holding onto her cup."

"...At least she didn't get hurt," Jared remarks softly. Connor nods, releasing his hand. As he stands to put the first aid kit back together, he shoots Jared a sideways glance.

"So...rough day?"

Jared's a little taken aback by this. "Wh-what?"

Connor gives a half smirk as he closes the kit. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I've never seen anyone cry that quickly or that much over spilling a drink in a store. At least, not when it was really about the drink. And- now this is just a guess- I don't think you're the kind of guy that would be that upset about a spilled drink, so..." As he talks, he walks to the fridge, setting the kit back in its place atop it. He then strides to his seat across from Jared, perching in it as he asks again. "Rough day?"

Its now almost midnight, and Jared would be lying if he said he wasn't already in an emotional place. And as far as he can tell, its just him and Connor here. And Connor's already seen him full on sobbing, so, talking about his emotions literally couldn't embarrass him any further.

So he talks. He explains how it started on Thursday with both his parents leaving. Then how Alana stole Evan because Jared's 'too mean'. And from there it goes to how Evan has left him on radio silence since last night and how he's been basically alone and how he hates being alone. And then he talks about questioning himself and how he's not sure what to think and that maybe Alana's right and he's just an asshole who deserves no friends and that as much as that hurts he's going to have to learn to deal. All throughout, Connor just listens.

When he's done, he's on the verge of crying again, arms curled around the uncomfortable pit that's formed in his stomach. Connor watches him for a moment, and when he speaks, his voice is incredibly gentle.

"Stay here tonight," Connor says. "My parents won't be home until tomorrow afternoon. We'll figure out what to do next then, okay?"

Shakily, Jared nods, closing his eyes. And then, as if this night wasn't already incredibly weird and out of character for the both of them, Connor shifts and pulls Jared into a tight hug, just holding him there. It takes a moment, but Jared hugs back.


	3. Pillow Talk

"So are you going to ask, Kleinman?"

Jared, seated on the edge of Connor's bed as the beanie wearing boy sets up the cot mattress across the room, looks up in startled confusion. "Ask...what?"

"Whatever it is that's been making you stare at me for the last twenty minutes," Connor replies, his tone holding an air of nonchalance as he spreads a comforter out on the cot. "I mean, unless you secretly have X-Ray vision and have been checking me out through my clothes, it seems like you have something on your mind. And judging by you staring at me, my guess is you want to ask me something. So: ask away."

Jared looks from Connor down to his hands, biting his lip. When he does speak, his voice comes out uncharacteristically timid, and he closes his eyes as if expecting a physical rebuttal to it. "Why are you a totally different person from who you are at school?"

For a moment, there is silence. Jared internally panics, wondering if Connor will kick him out and he'll have to go home and be alone, or if maybe Connor will just deck him because after all this is 'violent, crazy, edgy' Connor-Fucking-Murphy. The guy everyone at school is afraid of. The one who threw a desk at a teacher or whatever the fuck the rumor was (Jared doesn't remember now).

And then the bed shifts. Jared opens his eyes to Connor sitting beside him, but Connor is staring off, lost in thought, rather than looking at him.

"The Connor Murphy everyone knows at school is made up of so many rumors that its like a fucking urban legend," Connor says, picking at a loose thread on his long sleeve shirt. "I'll just go down the list of true and not true, its easier that way. Alright?"

Jared nods. 

"Alright," Connor sighs, a light, tired sound. "True: I do 'drugs'. And by 'drugs' I mean I smoke pot. That's literally as hardcore as it gets. And, by the way, its for medical reasons. I have a prescription for it and everything. True: I have done violent things in the past. But no, I didn't throw a desk, I shoved a desk across a room. And no, I'm not still that violent. You can relax, by the way, I'm not going to hit you. After the night you've had, hitting you would be like kicking a blind puppy. Its just cruel."

At this, Jared does relax a little, belatedly registering how much he'd physically tensed up when he asked his question. Connor, seeming to approve of this, smiles softly.

"And now for the untruths," He says, very official. "Not true: I'm in-love-with-slash-super-jealous-over my sister. Don't know where that one started, but that's fucking gross. Incest is gross. And the only time I ever hit anybody because of my sister was when that one fuckhead senior grabbed her ass... Not true: I am a sociopath. No, my actual diagnosis is depression, a type which makes me prone to fits of rage, violent outbursts, and general anger. Hence why I now pick up pot at the pharmacy. And, like I said earlier, I'm not nearly as violent as I used to be... I'm getting help now..."

"What made you get help?" Jared asks before he can stop himself, but Connor doesn't seem to mind.

"Zoe. She was terrified of me. Instead of her big brother I was this monster her parents forced her to live under the same roof as, one that was likely to kill her in her sleep or some terrible shit like that. When I realized that, I just... fuck, man... how do you deal with knowing your family members are terrified of you...?" 

Jared doesn't answer. He doesn't know. Again, Connor doesn't seem to mind. 

Swinging an arm lackadaisically around Jared's shoulders, Connor grins, changing the subject just as fluidly as it was introduced. "So... you play Xbox?"

"Yeah?" Jared can't help but sound a little confused. Connor just grins. 

"Bet I can kick your ass at Mariokart."

"Oh you're on, Murphy."

<...>

"Hey Jared, can I ask YOU a question?"

Its nearly three a.m and because of the silence even moments before this, Jared had been sure Connor was asleep. Still, he rolls onto his side to face Connor's bed, squinting at the blurry form in the darkness. "Yeah, sure..."

"What is the deal with you and Evan's friendship? I mean, clearly from the outside, it looks to people like you bully him. But most people who talk to Evan know you're his best friend in the whole world and that he practically thinks you hung the moon. How does that work...?"

For a minute, Jared isn't sure he wants to answer. Then again, Connor confessed a lot of things only hours ago, and if he trusts Jared with all that shit, Jared can trust him with this. Rolling onto his back, Jared sighs heavily at the ceiling before explaining.

"Evan and I... we've been best friends practically since we were in diapers," Jared starts, folding his hands on top of his chest. "Our moms were best friends, and since they had us around the same time, they made sure our lives were as intertwined as theirs- hence the whole 'family friends' joke- anyways... everything was perfectly fine until we hit fourth grade. Suddenly, people decided I was worth talking to, but dorky little Evan wasn't. Even worse, some people started to bully Evan. So, third week into fourth grade, I made Evan a promise: nobody was allowed to pick on him except me. I would make sure of it. What are best friends for, right?"

"So you fight off Evan's bullies before they have the chance to actually get near him?" 

"Yeah, essentially. I mean, Evan has already been through a lot of tough shit. His dad walked out when he was a kid. He's got the whole anxiety thing and the socially awkward thing and whatever..." Jared sighs some, raking a hand through his curls. "He doesn't need people beating on him too."

"...and this has been happening since fourth grade?"

"Most people stopped around freshman year. Every once in a while, somebody starts shit, and I meet them somewhere off school grounds and we fight it out. And when I win, they promise to leave Evan the fuck alone... and Evan and I keep this secret because we don't want to scare off people that might actually want to be friends with him..."

"And... you gentle bullying him was part of the agreement?"

At this, Jared winces. What he's about to tell Connor next is something only Evan knows. But, he's gone this far into the confession, he can't just start lying now.

"Partially," Jared says. "...the other part is because in eighth grade, I had a crush on Evan, and he knew about it, and took it surprisingly well. His only request was that I don't start suddenly being nice to him just because of it, 'cause that's what would make it weird. So... even after all these years, we still have the gentle bullying thing because I promised not to change it."

Connor is quiet long enough for Jared to regret everything he's said, but then, when he does finally speak, Connor asks a question Jared never expected. Instead of 'You're gay?' or 'Did you guys ever bang?', Connor asks: "Do you still have feelings for him?"

Jared shakes his head, rolling this time to face the wall. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I care about the kid. But Evan is straight. And no matter how much I liked him, that wouldn't change. So why break my own heart over it... y'know?"

A beat, and then...

"Yeah... I do..."


End file.
